Catching up with 2 ride reports

Tuesday Night Pizza Ride
This Ride: 31.4 miles
Month: 468.8 miles
2011: 2,676.2 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 8,795.9 miles

The forecast all day Tuesday was for a chance of thunderstorms early evening. True to form, as the front moved closer to Severna Park, it broke up, and the rain went around us. It made for a warm Tuesday Night Pizza Ride with 85°F temps and a steady southerly breeze. We had seven out to ride. I wasn’t sure what I had in my legs because of a fast morning ride, but as we pushed down the trail, my legs seemed to warm up and were ready to ride. We kept a reasonable pace until we got to Holly Drive. Janet kept going, she knew what would happen on Holly Drive. We were soon in a tight pace line and were moving fast. We kept the speed between 20 and 25 through the neighborhood, slowing only for sharp curves and one pre-teen girl who was wandering down the road clueless as to what was coming from behind her. Alex met us at the southern end of Hwy 2 and joined us back to Severna Park. We had some spirited sprints on the trail on the way back. I know I saw 31 mph briefly on my Garmin as I sprinted past some of the guys. Jane joined us for pizza after the ride. It was a nice ride with good friends. That’s two days of vacation with two rides each day. Not bad!

Wednesday Morning
This Ride: 22.8 miles
Month: 491.6 miles
2011: 2,699.0 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 8,818.7 miles

I woke up tired. Yesterday’s fast miles were weighing on me. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to keep up with the “big boys” on the morning ride. I had a fall back position though, since two riders announced they were not going to ride the fast ride this morning. As it was, I was caught in the middle. We had a big group out this morning. Easily a dozen riders. This was a clear morning. There were no clouds and the pavement was dry. That’s a break from what we’ve been having recently for these morning rides.

The leaders set a quick pace, but not one that was unreasonable, so I hung with the group all the way through to the hill in Round Bay. That hill was not attacked hard by the front riders, but it is where we started to be stretched out. We settled into about 3 smaller groups there, and continued the ride in the smaller groups (sometimes merging together, sometimes splitting apart) for most of the rest of the ride. I again found myself leading with a rider or two drafting through the southern part of the trail. I felt good and strong on B&A Blvd coming back, and we hit the rollers after Jones Station Road pretty quick. My test hill was ridden at a full 2 mph faster than ever before (21.5 mph), and that was not really drafting, although I was in a stretched out group at that point.

Once we got back to Jennings Road, I had nothing left in the legs. The hills on Jennings could have been mountains for all I know. I had considered stretching the ride to around 30 miles, but once I hit that hill, I knew I was done for the morning. This afternoon, who knows?

Over the past 25-26 hours, I rode 3 times, never less than 20 miles and never less than a 17.5 mph average pace. Wow!

I’ll have some observations in another post later today that might explain some of that.